Tensions mount in French port as activists from left and right demonstrate over migrant influx

Migrants protest in Calais, France demanding human rights protection, they have alleged police brutality against them, with some claiming to have suffered broken hands and legs, Friday, Sept. 5, 2014. There is rising anger at the rising number of migrants flocking to Calais which has long been used as a staging post to try to reach the shores of Britain. But recent months have seen a big increase in their numbers. (AP Photo/ Gareth Fuller, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE
(The Associated Press)

CALAIS, France – Police are blocking streets in the French port of Calais, as extreme left-wing activists are marching and far right activists protest an influx of migrants trying to sneak across the English Channel into Britain.

A few dozen leftists defending the migrants smashed the windows of a car in the city center. One said they were trying to disrupt the demonstration by anti-immigration activists Sunday.

Police barricaded streets and sought to keep the groups apart.

Calais is facing rising tensions over immigration and has about 1,300 migrants from the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Afghanistan. The migrants try to sneak onto trucks or ferries to Britain because they think it is a promised land with generous benefits for refugees — something officials say is a "myth" that must be broken.